Fridges That Are Optimized For Fuel Efficiency

By Author: Will Frazer
Total Articles: 168
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The popular notion of any refrigerator is that it uses electricity to cool the air inside it and help you preserve your food. Yet there are instances when you may not have access to electricity yet require a fridge to preserve food and cool various kinds of drinkables from water to milk to juices. When you are out on a camping trip or during a major power outage after a cyclone or hurricane, then you need the LPG refrigerator to do the needful. You won't need to stock up on canned goods if you regularly maintain a well stocked refrigerator. On first two/three days of a power outage, you can cook and eat the food in your refrigerator as long as you don't open the fridge door too often.
The LPG refrigerators use propane gas as their power source. Most fridges used on camps are absorption fridges. These can be powered 3 way, which include LPG Gas, 12 volt or 240 mains electric and compressor fridges are usually 12/24 volt and mains electric. For a 3 way fridge running from LPG, the source of heat — a propane, ...
... or sometimes butane, burner — is used to power a cyclical chemical reaction. The refrigerant — usually ammonia — goes through a cycle of evaporation and condensation, which cools the appliance. Running on gas is useful when staying on a site with no electric hook up or when you are camping in remote areas. 12 volt on absorption camping fridges should only really be used when travelling or when the vehicle is running.
Compressor camping fridges will run much longer on 12 volt as they use less power consumption than an absorption camping fridge. Since the three way fridges are optimized for fuel efficiency, very little propane is actually used. One important point to keep in mind about propane refrigerators and propane freezers is that they must be kept level. In the absence of any moving parts a large part of the mechanism for the absorption cycle depends entirely upon gravity. In some remote areas where access to electric power is a challenge, people use kerosene refrigerators for preserving their perishable foodstuffs and cooling various beverages.